Eli Metcalfe Bruce

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Eli Metcalfe Bruce
Confederate Congress
In office
1862–1865
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded byoffice abolished
Personal details
BornFebruary 22, 1828
Fleming County, Kentucky
DiedDecember 15, 1866(1866-12-15) (aged 38)
New York City, New York
SpouseElizabeth Sally Withers[1]
ProfessionEntrepreneur

Eli Metcalfe Bruce (February 22, 1828 – December 15, 1866) was a

Second Confederate Congresses. He was the principal financier of the Confederate government of Kentucky during the Civil War.[2]

Early life

Eli Metcalfe Bruce was born near

Cincinnati, Ohio.[1]

In 1853, Bruce married Elizabeth Sally Withers, and the couple had three children.[1] The following year, he and his uncle opened an iron furnace business near Terre Haute, Indiana.[1] In 1859, he sold his interest in the iron furnace company and purchased several pork packing plants along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Wabash Rivers.[1] These entrepreneurial endeavors left Bruce a wealthy young man.[3]

Civil War

Near the outbreak of the Civil War, Bruce sold all of his enterprises in the north and moved to the south.[1] A Confederate sympathizer, Bruce attended a secession convention in Russellville, Kentucky, in November 1861, and was elected to the legislative council of the Commonwealth's Confederate shadow government.[4] When Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy in December 1861, Bruce was elected to one of the Commonwealth's ten congressional seats.[1]

He personally financed many of the supply needs of Kentucky's Orphan Brigade.[1] His work in negotiating prisoner exchanges for this unit led to his being asked to negotiate such exchanges for the entire Confederate States Army.[1]

Near the end of the war, Bruce and

pardoned of any wrongdoing with regards to his support of the Southern cause by President Andrew Johnson.[1]

Later life and death

Bruce financed the merger of two

The Courier-Journal.[5] He later moved to New York City, New York, where he became a cotton broker and opened a hotel for the use of former Confederate soldiers.[1] He continued to augment his fortune through wise investments, and shortly after the war, an abandoned South Carolina gold mine in which he had invested struck a new vein.[1]

Bruce died of

heart disease on December 15, 1866, and was buried in Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington, Kentucky.[1] In 1917, his body was exhumed and reburied near his wife and daughter in Highland Cemetery[1] in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.[6] The Northern Kentucky chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans is named in his honor.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u "Guide to the Bruce Family Papers". Northern Kentucky University. Archived from the original on 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  2. ISBN 0-7575-2012-X
    .
  3. ^ "History of Elizaville". RootsWeb.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
  4. ^ "Wednesday, November 20, 1861". Civil War Landscapes Association. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
  5. ISBN 1-4179-3319-4
    .
  6. ^ "Kentucky Historical Marker Database". Kentucky Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2007-11-05. Retrieved 2007-06-19.

External links

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